


A Windy Evening

by h_nb



Series: Brick [10]
Category: Original Work
Genre: !!, Aela POV, Beating, Blindfolded, Hit, Other, Powered OCs, Punching, Rescue, Whump, Whumptober 2020, gagged, injured, restrained
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:41:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27182608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h_nb/pseuds/h_nb
Summary: Whumptober Day Twenty Four: Blindfolded
Relationships: Brick (OC)/Aela Bazyli (OC)
Series: Brick [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948501
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	A Windy Evening

**Author's Note:**

> Aela Bazyli is @highqualitynot's OC and is used with her permission and help

Aela was bruised, battered, and tired, but for the moment, forgotten.

They sat slumped in a corner of the room, a space that had once been a church but one long since abandoned. The sanctuary space was small, longer than it was wide, filled with half-torn carpet and dusty, crumbling pews. The side of their head throbbed, stinging where blood was dripping down the side, matting their silver hair and coating the side of their neck in it. There was a slight respite when they leaned their head against the stone wall of the sanctuary, but it wasn't nearly enough to soothe the rest of their body from the bruises that were blooming on their torso, or the cuts on their arm, slices that had started out shallower but grew steadily deeper until the asshole who was hurting them had been called away. Aela had been forced to the corner they now were crumpled in, working up the energy to stand and try to flee.

Their legs trembled as they leaned their body weight against the wall, using it as leverage to stand. No one was in the sanctuary watching them, it was silent save for the wind breezing in through the broken windows and the sound of Aela's quick breaths through their nose as they planted a leg underneath them, slowly pushing themself to standing. Getting the duct tape off their wrists and off from around their mouth would be the next problem, after they got out of here.

A sudden increase of noise and the unfortunately familiar sound of someone struggling caught Aela's attention before they started to make their escape. They instantly knew who was yelling an endless string of obscenities, and the realization distracted them enough that their battered leg gave out and they slumped to the floor with a muffled groan.

They watched from their place in the corner as Brick was dragged down the aisle of the formerly quiet sanctuary, breaking the terrible silence with their familiar snarling curses and obscenities. With the bag cinched tight over their head and the overpowering hands on their body that forced Brick down the center of the room, Aela couldn't tear their eyes away from their partner, but this time an accompanying feeling of dread clenched their stomach. They attempted to speak, to alert their partner of them, but it was silenced by the cloth between their teeth and the strips of tape keeping their lips shut. Their throat burned with exertion as they shouted into oblivion, not even the echoes of the tall ceilings in the sanctuary were enough to carry their sound.

Instead, they could only watch in silent horror as Brick was forced to the center of the sanctuary, in between two posts that must have been used for something once, but now was only used to loop thick ropes around a crook in the wood and around each of Brick's wrists, tying them securely. Aela watched Brick try and yank their arms free, breathing heavily, still grumbling obscenities, only to be cut off with a groan as the person in front of them hit them hard in the stomach, a metal pipe clutched in their hands. "Shut up!" they roared, slamming the pipe into Brick's stomach again. Brick spasmed briefly, silent as they struggled to recover their breath. "Shut up, we're gonna be the one's talking now, understand? We're the fucking ones making the demands, or you're gonna pay the damn price for it."

Brick's breathing was wheezing for a moment, and Aela sat up a little straighter, concerned by the sound coming from their chest. They could barely hear Brick's voice, reverberating out through the chamber. "Get this fucking bag off my head."

"Are you fucking listening?" Brick groaned as their side was hit again, trying and failing to anticipate where the next strike would be coming from.

"I'm not gonna fucking listen to the same shitty spiel about why I should come fucking work for you guys, fuck off-" Brick coughed, doubled over as much as they could, loud, gasping breaths coming from them.

Aela had no clue what they were talking about, but was only half- listening to them, focused more on standing back up again. There was some deep scrape on their leg they hadn't noticed before now, it burned every time they stretched the muscles in their calf to stand, but Aela pushed through it, intent on getting out of here so they could come back and get Brick. If they could just get their hands free, they could summon their axe and deal with these assholes.

"Well, we're kindly asking you to reconsider," the man said, his tone thick with sarcasm. He brought the sturdy metal down hard on the top of Brick's shoulder, and Aela winced in sympathy as Brick's body jerked, arm buckling as their bad shoulder took a blow. There was a strangled grunt in the back of Brick's throat, and Aela could picture the face they were making from having to see it one too many times themself. Jaw clenched, wide eyes but furrowed eyebrows, using anger as their shield against everything else in the world.

Brick's voice was thinner, threaded with pain and fury. "Well- I'm telling you I'm not doin'- shit for you, so this is a waste of your god damn time, Vance. You're— nnh, not gonna kill me 'cause you want to use me, and I'm not gonna just give in 'cause you hit me around a few times."

Aela paused against the wall as the space fell silent for a few moments, certain that their scrabbling to stand would be heard in the quiet space. They were nearly standing, they just needed a few more seconds.

"We're going to convince you, one way or the other." Another blow came down on Brick's shoulder, and a strangled cry briefly left their throat before the board slammed into their gut again, cutting off their breath.

"Ff-fuck off," Brick grunted. "I'm not doing whatever bullshit you want from me."

"The other, then." As he said that, Aela fully stood, starting to creep away to the nearest exit. Then the man turned for the first time since he had entered, and his cold eyes locked with Aela's. Eyes widening, Aela was internally cursing as they started to dart for the open exit.

"Hey!" Vance barked, and Aela could hear Brick moving behind him, but they didn't stop to look, and only broke into a run to the exit and the cool night air.

With their wrists bound behind their back, their balance wasn't the greatest, so there was nothing Aela could do to stop themself from falling forward when a foot stuck out of a dark room in the church, tripping their quick-moving feet and sending them flying forward, barely twisting to land hard on their side. Aela groaned, curling inward, the cuts on their arms aggravated and their shoulder throbbing with new pain from bearing much of their weight. They looked up, but their startled cry was quickly silenced by the gag, so there was no one to hear them struggle as hands grabbed their arms, yanking them roughly to their feet.

They were shoved back into the main sanctuary room, and Aela's heart beat loud in their ears as they were forced across the room, near the front where Brick was tied and that stranger was waiting with an awful grin.

Aela came to a stop just a few feet away from Brick. Their partner's head was raised slightly, looking around but clearly not seeing anything. Aela was held too firmly to try and move away as Vance walked closer, a smug smile on his face.

The tape was torn off their face so fast that Aela barely registered it before they let out a sharp gasp of surprise as the cloth fell from their mouth. Brick's head shot up again and Aela barely had a moment to yell their name before a solid punch across their face sent them suddenly sprawling across the ground, twisting and tumbling down the carpeted steps and banging into a decrepit pew to bring them to a stop. Aela's ears rung and their head was spinning as they were hauled back to their feet again. They forced themself to keep their head up and their eyes ahead of them.

Brick's head was up as well, and they were no longer struggling. They hadn't said anything, but Aela knew that they had been heard and Brick was very aware of their presence.

"Willing to reconsider now?" That solid metal pipe was back in his hand, and Aela watched it warily.

"You haven't even hit me again, why would I reconsider?" Brick's hands were trembling, Aela could see them clenched and shaking. Vance sighed heavily, tapping the pipe lightly at his side and turning around, ripping the bag off Brick's head.

Brick's hair was a matted mess, and there was blood dripping from their nose but also dried blood on their cheek that didn't seem to be from an injury of their own. Their eyes were on Aela the instant they could see again, blinking rapidly at the sudden increase in light. Despite the injuries that were making their body ache furiously, Aela couldn't hold back a fleeting smile as they made eye contact with Brick.

" _This_ is why." Aela's upper arm was grabbed and they were shoved forward, stumbling to a stop close to Brick. They could see their partner's arms straining, trying to pull free of the firmly secured posts, but finding no ground. There was a quick movement behind them, and then the tape around their hands was sliced, separating their wrists. A look of surprise passed over both of them, but then Aela's arm was pulled up, forearm pressed to the side and held there. Aela knew with one quick motion the joints in their elbow could be snapped, so it was with real fear that they looked up at Brick. Their mind turned in circles for a few moments, fighting past the panic that this dangerous position was bringing them. Vance said something, but Aela processed none of it as their head continued to swim. All they saw was Brick's head tilting slightly, eyes darting from their face to Aela's arm, which was hanging by their side, duct tape still clinging to their skin.

Aela blinked, and their eyes widened, wincing slightly as more pressure was put on their left arm. Their right hand rose though, and Aela flicked their wrist, fingers fluttering to their left.

A gust of wind rushed in from the broken window at their right, and Brick smiled. The wind zipped in, more of a quick breeze than a huge gale, but it was enough that it swirled around Vance's feet and unbalanced him, just in time for Brick to grip onto the wood their wrists were bound to and jump up, legs briefly tucking under them before grunting loudly and kicking out at Vance's legs, sending him soaring backward down the steps of the sanctuary. Arm free, Aela was quickly moving, snatching the pipe up from the ground and lunging after Vance, wind cushioning their fall but not the pipe as they swung it down hard on his chest, a harsh crack clearly audible. While he groaned on the floor Aela stood back up, quickly moving their arms to direct another strong gust of wind at the door of the sanctuary where a few other people were starting to rush at them. The wind blew them back some, and the sanctuary doors closed with a heavy thud. Aela dropped the wind, and crouched to grab the knife they knew had been used earlier to free them out of Vance's pockets. He tried to grab at them again, but Aela just swung the pipe down on his knee, and he screamed, and Aela found the pocketknife in his front pocket. They flipped it out to the blade, and ran up the few steps back to Brick, reaching up with aching arms to cut the rope around their wrist, clenching the pipe in the crook of their armpit as they did so.

They freed one wrist, then ran to the next, watching as Vance started to struggle to get to his feet and the sanctuary door was pushed open and more strangers who wished them harm began to run down the center aisle. As soon as both of Brick's arms were free, they grabbed the pipe from under Aela's arm and started to move toward Vance. "I'm gonna kill him," they said lowly, but Aela grabbed their wrist, wincing at the skin rubbed raw from the ropes.

"Later," they said, exhaustion catching up to them and making their body droop. "Too many of them, I can't do more of that, let's just go." They pulled Brick — Brick let themself be pulled, Aela knew they could have easily torn away if they wanted — to them, and Brick met their eyes and after a brief, conflicting moment, nodded.

"Okay, yeah we can go." They put a hand on Aela's shoulder, and Aela leaned into their chest, heart racing in their throat. They watched the people running up the carpeted steps until they turned into static, and then the two of them disappeared entirely, escaping into the windy night.


End file.
